The consequences of self sacrifice
by callosum
Summary: Luffy's after Zoro to tell him what happened at Thriller Bark, and Zoro has to take evasive action. A light-hearted one-shot, unanoned from the One Piece fanforall.


******Title:**The consequences of self-sacrifice  
******Rating:**K  
******Summary:**Luffy's after Zoro to tell him what happened at Thriller Bark, and Zoro has to take evasive action.  
******Acknowledgments:**Thanks to the OP at the One Piece fanforall for their very fun prompt!

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"Zorooooooo! Tell meeeeeeeeee!"

"NO!"

The Strawhats looked up from their respective activities as Zoro scuttled down the main mast from the crow's nest, closely followed by their captain.

"Gomu Gomu no Amidori!"

Zoro hurriedly ducked out of the range of Luffy's outstretched rubber arm. "Luffy, I said no!"

"Awww, Zoro, c'mon!" Luffy whined, retracting his hand for another try.

"Luffy, don't chase Zoro around so much, he's supposed to be recovering!" Chopper yelled. "And Zoro, what happened to your bandages?" His question went unanswered as the duo disappeared to the other side of the ship.

Zoro suddenly skidded to a stop. "Hey, what's that over there?" He pointed out towards the open sea.

"What? Where?" Luffy dashed over to the side of the ship, shielded his eyes and scanned the horizon expectantly.

Zoro immediately took the chance to sneak away from his gullible captain, running over to where the ladies were relaxing on the deckchairs, where he paused for a breather, coughing from the exertion, hands on his knees.

"Zoro, what's going on?" Nami asked. Zoro was too busy gulping for air to answer.

"I believe that Luffy-san wanted to know why Swordsman-san got injured on Thriller Bark," Robin explained, a knowing smile on her face, as Zoro gave her a frantic shake of the head.

"Hey, I want to know too! What did happen, Zoro?"

"Not you too," Zoro sighed, but before he could continue, Luffy came running round the corner.

"Zoro, you tricked me! There was nothing there!" he shouted indignantly.

"Oh no," Zoro groaned, and took off again, this time escaping into the galley, interrupting a very bewildered cook in his dish-washing.

"What the hell...?" Sanji began, staring at Zoro as he threw open a cabinet door and crawled inside.

"Give him food. Meat. Something. Anything!" Zoro ordered, and shut the door.

Sanji straightened up as Luffy jogged in, looking around curiously. "Hey, Sanji, did you see Zoro?"

"Zoro? Hmm..." Sanji cupped his chin thoughtfully. "Why do you want Zoro, anyway?"

"Because, I want him to tell me what happened at Thriller Bark! Why did he get so beat up? He won't tell me!" Luffy answered, a note of petulance in his voice.

"Ah, I see. Well, if you want to find Zoro..."

"Dammit, cook!" a disembodied voice hissed from under the sink.

"Are you begging me?" Sanji taunted in a whisper.

"Hell, no!"

"I did see him..."

"Sanji!" The voice was pleading now.

"So you ___are _begging me?"

There was a moment of silence. "Yeah."

Sanji grinned at the grudging admission. Zoro really ___was _desperate. "Okay, but you're going to owe me."

"Fine."

Luffy tilted his head to a side, puzzled. "Sanji, why're you talking to yourself? You said you saw Zoro?"

"Yeah, two hours ago at lunch," Sanji replied. A sigh of relief emerged from the plumbing.

"Oh, I meant just now," Luffy frowned. He turned for the door.

Give him food, Zoro had said. Sanji had to fulfill his part of the bargain. "Want a snack, Luffy? I'm making sandwiches," he offered.

"But I've gotta find Zoro!"

It was too bad, Sanji thought, that he couldn't savour this rare moment, of seeing Luffy so focused on something he actually ignored the lure of snacks. All to save the idiot marimo's ass. He shook his head and stepped up his game. "They've got ham in them," he said enticingly, stopping Luffy in his tracks.

"Ham?" A drop of drool ran down Luffy's chin.

"Yup. And, let's see, I have some chicken as well..."

"Yay! Meat!"

Cook led captain over to the table and began plying him with food and drink, taking a perverse pleasure in the knowledge that the shitty marimo wouldn't be able to emerge from his cramped hiding spot for the whole hour that usually constituted snack-time for Luffy.

Served the self-sacrificing idiot right. If you were going to offer up your life for your captain, you had to accept the consequences.

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**Author's Note:** I don't think I'll ever tire of writing Thriller Bark reactions :-P Let me know what you think.


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